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This blog is about gaming, but D&D is top on my list, from D&D 5e, Pathfinder to good old AD&D 1e (where my roots come from!). I'm an Evil DM, I have been for many years, to the point folks enjoy my games and style but fear things in game. Paranoia is great and fuels a lot of awesome roleplaying situations with characters in game. Have a question? Feel free to contact me for advice about 1e, 5e or Pathfinder - ASKTHEDM(@)THEEVILDM(.)COM

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The Evil GM - Adventurer with... baby?!

I am in the process of gathering up some friends and doing a face to face game of D&D, and I told my friends, think about your character concepts as we will be rolling up characters next time we meet. I also advised them that I want them to work as a group and figure out their back stories, whom they know in the town, family members..etc. I wanted to see if they could form a well rounded group with characters that meant something.

I've gotten a few emails from folks asking about this or what I thought about that, but this morning I receive a rather odd.. well, I won't say odd, maybe kind of interesting concept from my friend Michelle. My friends and listeners of the podcasts I do, know I never say "no" to players, but rather tend to work with them on whatever they want to make things acceptable to both of us, as well as the group.

Anyway, let me post the email I got:

Okay, yes you read that correctly, the player wants to have a baby with her while she is out adventuring.

My first thought is okay, that is different, but how will that work?

I can see that working from a pure roleplaying stand point, but for adventures... I see this said baby causing a lot of problems. The common things I can see causing problems:

Baby crying

Baby making sounds while trying to be quiet

Baby becoming a target during battles

Baby needs food, can't eat rations

Baby saving throws, much weaker then a normal adventurer

These are the first thoughts that come to mind when I read the email, I will jot these down and present them when she is telling the group of her idea. If the group is cool with this idea, I am more then willing to roll with this for as long as things allow it.

I think its an interesting concept that the character has a dark secret of why she has this child and maybe, depending on the deity she picks, will frown upon this and not give her those spells she prays for, making her feel guilty until she admits the situation and returns the child to said family.

Comments

Reminds me of the Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind manga, where Nausicaa rescues a couple of infants from some war-torn town. She had them with her for a short period until she was able to find a mother who had recently lost her kids in a similar war-torn scenario. Short lived, but it was touching and dramatic. Perhaps that's the goal, to find a safe home for the child.

The baby noise issue can be solved when moving around by having some sort of magical silence spell/device running when its in the papoose etc. That's a lot better than giving opiates to babies, which is what happened during Victorian times.

Might want to rewatch Willow again and see what happened with Elora Danan in the movie there.

I ran a campaign where the party suddenly found themselves taking care of an orphaned human infant. Because children are a gift from God -- amirite? -- I made a Divine Boon item card that listed the benefits of having a baby around.

http://i.imgur.com/VQYK7Mn.png

Making them roll dice to see what the baby did every in-game hour was oh so much fun. Having a crying baby who really needs breast milk in the midst of a zombie apocalypse... motivated the party to find a human woman at any cost. :)

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First I want to say, I think online gaming is a great tool for gaming and while its been around for a long time, in these last few years, playing on line has become so easy, its almost the same experience as sitting at table with your friends in person playing the game. DM's can post up their game, allow people to read up on the game and decide if they want to join based on the DM's rules.

Haven’t really updated in a while, been very busy with
life, the podcasts I am doing and actually gaming on a weekly basis.
I have a lot of things going on and coming down the pipe,
but something today I read online, really resonated with me, and it brewed in
my head while driving to work.

Something that has always bugged me in D&D and this dates back to the days of playing D&D in the '80s, but its more of a thing since the "MMO/video gamer generation" (let's go with that for now) has moved into playing D&D, was that all their stats have to be high, and anything less then having a +2 modifier on your stats was a "waste of time".

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What's this Blog about?Nothing is as it seems in my games, so feel free to show up in my game with your books and TRY to rules lawyer me, it will only result in another character soul taken. Remember you are the Dungeon Master and ANYTHING can be done as long as you can dream it up because you rule the game, not the other way around! IF the book doesn't list it, doesn't mean its not possible, think folks, you are the DM, do as you please, its your world! Over 1000+ character souls taken as of this date!